Corrections Dept. says it will close two prisons, open a new one in Centre County.

With the state's prison population on the wane, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections says it
plans to close two prisons in western Pennsylvania and replace them with a new one in Centre County.

"This is a responsible, conservative plan to replace capacity at a time when our population is declining," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said.

The agency says it will close state prisons at Cresson in Cambria County and Greensburg in Westmoreland County and open a new prison in Benner Township in Centre County. The move is expected to save about $23 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, Wetzel said.

The 800 employees who will be affected by the closings will be moved to new jobs within the Corrections Department, Wetzel said.

Complete a year ago at a cost of about $200 million, the new prison will house about 2,300 inmates. Inmates from the Cresson Prison, which was largely a mental health facility, will receive those services at Benner and neighboring Rockview State Prison.

Lawmakers whose districts include the prisons were informed of the move on Tuesday, leading to some grumbling about short notice. Wetzel shot back at critics Wednesday saying the timing had been appropriate. But he noted, "if they want a hearing, they'll get a hearing."

In a statement, the union representing prison guards said it had not been notified of the agency's plans.

"If this is the case, the [Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association] was not consulted and will look at all options," union president Roy Pinto said in a statement. "Such closings will hurt thousands of families and devastate the local economies in those areas."

On Wednesday, Wetzel said employees affected by the closings will be given an opportunity to "bid" on the roughly 1,200 openings throughout the prison system. The Corrections Department has other facilities within 50 to 60 miles of the soon-to-be shuttered facilities. About 560 employees will be needed to run the new Benner prison.

The agency last closed a prison in 2007, with the shutdown of the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, which later reopened in 2009, A state prison in Greene County was also closed in 2005.

In its statement, the union said the decision to close the two prisons were "based on the mammoth assumption that Pennsylvania's prison population will steadily decline after decades of
increases."

Wetzel said changes in approaches to incarceration and efforts to improve probation and parole had changed the way the agency treats inmates. The Corrections Department was flat-funded in the 2012-13 state budget after years of increases and remains one the top three most expensive state agencies.

It was unclear Wednesday what will happen to the shuttered prisons. The state expects to spend about $5 million a year to maintain them. Wetzel speculated that both the state Department of General Services, which is charged with managing state property, or the Department of Community and Economic Development could step in to address the vacancies.